First, my body is cut between different reflections and lights, a hand in one, scribbled on denim in another, and my face is cut between two panels hanging side by side... I'm being greeted by a fun house illusion. That's nerve provoking no matter what place you're entering.
Secondly, the way these silver prisms slice the sunlight reminds me of another mirror, one that drags the very stars from the sky. One that I've all but locked away and pretended not to possess. One that I'm dangerously close to using again.
And third, each and every single one of those mirrors are fogging over with a thin layer of moisture, and I swear, there's a shadow behind me that doesn't belong to either Atlas or myself.
"Keep walking, you're letting all the cold air out," Atlas mutters behind me, clearly unaffected as he waits with one hand on the door he's trying to close.
I blink, and the shadow vanishes, along with every trace of condensation off the mirrors. It's probably just a trick of light, or sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation could cause that. Right?
Mumbling a vague response, I stumble further into the room. Should I take off my shoes? The air is crisp and frigid, the furniture tidy and pale, and confusion swells upon me the longer I gaze at my surroundings. Jason lives here? Between the leather jacket and the way, he sprawled about Atlas' living room, I was expecting something covered in band posters or barely furnished. This is closer to the way my mother's house is decorated.
"Glad to see you guys, it's been a hell of a week. I feel like crap, and Bowens won't stop calling every evening to check on me." Jason speaks frankly, his gait unsteady as he crosses the space. Basketball shorts betray a wicked case of road rash that brushes its way up his limbs, and his right arm sports a nasty gouge that trails down to his wrist.
"Seems like it. No offense to all the beauty rest you've been getting, but you look like crap, Stone."
"I still look better than you, man."
A half-hearted grin crosses Jason's face as the two men banter, and with guilt in my heart, I excuse myself to set the flowers in a vase. I shouldn't let Nova get in my head, but her jabs about the cat coming after me... well, I know Jason's injuries aren't personally my fault, but if I contributed, even unintentionally? I wonder how fast they'd kick me out.
Straightening a spare leaf, my heart twinges at that thought. That isn't fair to Atlas. Not after he literally dropped everything to help me. They wouldn't toss me out, so I should honor their decisions and do right by them. Like with these flowers.
And the first chance I get, I'll go examine those mirrors again. Just in case. No reason to offend Jason by suggesting his home isn't as secure as he thinks.
So, holding my head a little higher, I return to the couch and gently set the vase on the sleek coffee table. Ugh, but I hate the sound of glass hitting glass. At the shrill, screeching clink, I grind my teeth, and hold on more tightly to my photo.
"Let me see that," Jason demands, their conversation halted with rapid alarm.
"See what?" I'm asking, even as he's ripping the photo from my hands. "Hey! Give that back."
Atlas stops me with a quick hand on my shoulder, eyeing Jason with trepidation.
"What's wrong?" His low voice is coated in urgency, and my ears begin to ring with oncoming anxiety.
"Is this your sister? The one who's missing?"
"Yes?" My answer comes out as a question in my confusion. I hate the sense of wrongness in this moment.
"She's here."
Chapter 21: Tania
"WHAT?"
"Here, where?"
Atlas and I both clamor our questions at once, and despite my rapid rise out of my seat, the pain that's been plaguing my leg is completely absent.
"I saw her at the hospital on Wednesday when I went to pick up some paperwork. She was in triage. She's skinnier than this picture, and kind of wild looking, but it was definitely the same girl."
"But where is she now? I need to go find her," I cry, wheeling back to the door. Atlas puts out an arm to stop me, and my eyes burn as I gaze at him in alarm. Why would he stop me now? This is my sister we’re talking about!
"Are you absolutely sure it's the same person? We can't just go barreling into town with The Council on red alert."
Jason's face is tired as he nods once. "I couldn't place it at the time, but her eyes are what caught my attention. I knew I'd seen them before, but I couldn't figure out where. She looks like Tania."
The small sob that catches in my throat holds back the pain in my chest, and I lean against one of the many mirrors, pushing my hair back with my hands in disbelief. This is it. I'm going to save her. We're going to be okay. She’s going to be fine.
"Okay, great. Do you know why she was there? Can you find out where she went?"
He's asking all the practical, necessary questions, but my head is reeling, and all I want to do is drive into town and get her. I've come too far for a pesky group of ornery witch haters to get in my way.
Jason's head bows with a heartbreaking slouch.
"I can find out why she was there, sure... but as far as where she went..." his voice trails off.
I snap to attention at the despair in his tone. "Where? What aren't you telling me?"
"Tania, calm down, you're getting hysterical!" Atlas wraps his arms around me as I hit the wall in frustration, causing a ripple of glass to shake across the hall.
"I can't calm down! Telling someone to calm down only ever has one effect- pissing them off more!" Struggling against his chest, I raise my voice in desperation. "Jason, I want my sister, where is my sister?"
My voice is breaking, my throat is swollen, and as my cries unleash, I'm blinded by tears. The only thing keeping me on my feet are Atlas' arms, as my weight collapses against him.
I can barely hear him over the ringing in my ears, but it doesn't matter. I don't understand his words anyway. I just want my sister.
"Bowens was with her. I'm so sorry Atlas, I swear I wouldn't have left her there if I knew. But they didn't say a word to me, they can't possibly be trying to peg her for the demon, can they?"
"Honestly, Jason, I'm not all that sure where they draw the line when it comes to witches. Can you make a few calls? See if there's any chance she was admitted and didn't go with him?"
"Go with who? I don't understand, who has her?" My words are as repetitive as my thoughts, but they’re not bringing me any closer to Sasha.
They will steal you, the words echo through my head, as clear as the mangled face that spoke them. Someone's been picking off witches, is it this Bowens person?
"Samuel Bowens is one of the most influential Council members," Atlas murmurs against my hair.
"Unfortunately, The Council's current position on, um, uh, witches, is that one of you has unleashed a shifter into the city limits. Which means, anyone suspected of witchcraft is to be watched and investigated intensely."
"Investigated?" The word is pushed from my lungs by an overcrowding of fears that threaten to drown me.
The more they look into her past, the worse it's going to get. Even in a regular city, a coven banned witch is seen as a disgrace or possible danger. One who's on the run from her coven because of possible dark spell work? Even worse. I knew that coming into town, Atlas warned me from the start, so why does this feel so bad?
A groan shudders through my throat, and my legs give out completely, forcing Atlas to lower me to the ground into a sitting position.
"We can get her back, no problem. This is good, if she's physically here we can bring her back from the other side of things. Maybe this is why you keep having those nightmares? The ghost from that house could have the answers!"
Atlas is lying, I know he's lying because he's using the same voice I used on Sasha when she was little, and I promised her Dad was coming home soon. It's empty but covered in a sugary sweetness that makes it sound like the only thing in the world that can possibly happen.
Behind him, Jason is pale with stress and pain, but leaning towards us anyway. "
What do you mean the other side of things? I saw her in town, where else could she be?"
"Astral plane, stuck on the wrong side of the Veil, poor dear. Didn't you tell your new friends anything, Tania? Because, Sugar, if you don't work fast, it's all going to come tumbling down faster than you can blink." The words fall about me in shattered fragments of understanding, and in my shock, I can only stare in disbelief at the woman who spoke them.
"Andromeda?!"
She loiters just outside the door, with a velvet voice, and enough violence in her eyes to conjure a world of fear. As if we needed any extra panic.
"I would have been here sooner, but I've got to hand it to you gentlemen, y'all have got your boundaries shut down right. I've been waiting around for days looking for even a trace of a witch, and I didn't get nothing until this morning."
Recoiling from her words, I duck my head closer to Atlas' chest, and he raises an arm, blocking my cousin's face from view. Her body distorts strangely, reminding me of the heat like wavers from this morning.
"Hang on now, I'm the calvary! I come in peace." But she makes no move to enter the room, and glancing between my two protectors, I gather that they're both keeping her at bay.
Jason is standing now, muttering ancient tongues beneath his breath that light up his doorway with dozens of symbols and words from every country imaginable. Glowing sigils and pictographs burn from within the wood, though I know they weren't visible when we first walked in.
"Prove it," Atlas spits out, while tightening his arm around my ribs to pull me with him as he scoots back towards Jason.
I haven't seen Andromeda since Sasha's reception into The Coven. Unless she was at my trial, but everyone was so menacing that night, it was impossible to tell one Tempest face from another.
"You know as well as I do, The Coven cut me off. The only reason I can think of, for you being here, is to hunt for Sasha." Even as the words leave my mouth, that fear runs down my spine.
"Tania, let's be frank. The Tempest clan has always been way darker than anyone would like to admit, but the thought of a mother wanting to burn one daughter over the loss of another? That's something even the elders couldn't stomach. But then you pulled your little stunt refusing to follow decorum at your trial, and they couldn't very well let you off the hook, so banishment it was. Nobody wants to hurt Sasha; I promise. Nobody even wants to bother with you, well, besides your dear old mom. She’s madder than a bat out of hell. I swear, that woman lost every bit of her heart the moment your daddy walked out the door."
"Shut up! Shut up, shut up!" Before I can process my own actions, I'm hurling fireballs out of my palms, anger fueling the flames more than any conscious thought. Offensive magic works best that way, but for my dear cousin, all I'm doing is defending myself.
"Just because your family is so damn perfect, doesn't mean you get to chase me down just to kick me down when all I'm trying to do is save the one person I have! Can't you just give me that!?" Sparks glance off the doorway as she throws up a shield of glittering light, and I throw all the more furiously.
"No! Because I'm not going to let you sacrifice yourself and screw everything up! Think, Tania, for once, think! What the hell is my talent? Prophecy! Now you listen to me when I say that you need me, and I need you!"
Need. The words stop me short, flames still sparking in my palm. Need. That's an angle I can understand, one I can get behind. As far as cousins go, we've never been close, but that was less on our choosing and more on our mothers. But Andromeda has always kept to the edge of gatherings, and if there's anyone I can imagine going against The Coven it would be her. I just wouldn't have expected her to do it for me. Or Sasha.
"What's in it for you?" I snarl, stalling to consider my options.
Both men divert their attention towards me, unsure of what direction to take. Friend or foe? I can imagine them silently asking me. I'd like to know the answer myself.
"An open mind," she begins, flicking her eyes to the way Atlas scoots just a bit more in front of me. "Which I'm betting you'll be sure to give me, with how close you've gotten to these mages. And, once this shitstorm is taken care of and we get you reinstated; I need a matriarch who will grant some protection to someone who's really going to need it."
"You've got to be joking, look at the situation, you can't really expect me to be able to protect anyone?"
Pointing a finger to her head, she raises a sharply shaped eyebrow at me. "Seer, remember? Trust me, Sugar. You got this. But not alone, we're going to need to work together. I'm going to help you get your precious pain in the ass, and then, one of these days, you'll help a couple of friends of mine."
I don't like the way she's eyeing me, all exasperation and overconfidence. But even more, I hate her talent. She's like a living embodiment of my mirror; shiny, dangerous, and deadly accurate. It's enough to leave a bad taste in anybody's mouth.
"You make it sound like I don't even have a choice. How do I know you're really here to help, that this isn't some kind of bluff?"
"You ran away from your dad's when you were twelve, and everybody thought you went straight home, but you didn't. You bought a plant. A regular, boring, uninspiring little succulent often called a little jewel."
The base of my neck grows cold, and a tiny pot filled with black soil and a smidge of green flashes through my mind.
Still, Andromeda presses on. "You knew even then that was asking for trouble, so now that it's all going to hell, do you really think you do have a choice? Face it. You need me, whether you believe me or not."
"You haven't told me anything I didn't already know," I retort, mentally cursing myself for giving her the impression I might actually need her help. "So much for being a helpful seer." Making a show of rolling my eyes, I struggle to sit up straighter, forcing Atlas to move with me. "You have thirty seconds to try again or get lost."
"Stop being so prideful. I told you something that nobody but you or Sasha would know. I tracked you down despite your cloaking spells, and I haven't raised a single finger against you even while you were throwing flames at my face. Do you know how expensive this lipstick is?" She points at her puckered lips, indicating the bright violet gloss.
Cocking her hip to the side she continues with annoyance. "If I wanted it melted off, I'd find myself a date. Now get off your high horse and let me help you before you get yourself killed. Stars know, if you had asked for help when Sasha started all this nonsense we wouldn't be here right now. I would've thought after Hallows Eve you would have done something, but here we are," she huffs at me, throwing her hands out to motion to our odd positions.
Jason is still muttering under his breath, despite the obvious pain in his eyes. Atlas is crouched beside me, tattoos glowing as bright as the sun beyond the stairwell. And me? Well, I've just reduced myself to a pathetic mess sometime between my rapid collapse on the floor and the fire fueled tantrum.
"Let her in," I decide grudgingly. She may be an intolerable know-it-all and potential spy, but being a seer means she's going to find out everything regardless if we cooperate or not. We may as well take her at her word and use her strengths if that's the case.
"I knew you'd see it my way," she soothes, raising a flat stone to her eye before stepping in. A hagstone. The near perfect circle in the center allows her to scan the room for unseen dangers, and though she pauses at the mirrors on the wall, her attention sticks to Atlas the moment her gaze crosses him.
Jason had taken my words as a welcome opportunity to collapse back into his seat, his injuries from the wreck obviously not as healed as Atlas assumed. But as for the latter man, his stance hasn't changed, so on the floor we remain.
"Hon, I swear to you, I'm not going to touch a single hair on her head. Y'all's relationship is actually one of the reasons I'm okay risking my own position with our coven, so would you kindly put that shield down?"
Shield? He grumbles unhappily at her, but as he does so, the wavering around Andromeda slows and fades away. I thought his arm was
up to physically shield me, but stupid me didn't take into account his own defensive magic. I knew those tattoos were more than pretty decorations or glowing threats.
Stepping into the room, she ties her waist length hair into a clumsy bun and flashes a smile at the guys in way of introduction. "Hi, boys. My name's Andy, what can I call y'all?"
"Why don't you use your stupid fortune telling to figure that one out?" I mutter under my breath.
Atlas twists one edge of his mouth to the side and glances at me disapprovingly. "I'm Atlas, that's Jason. So what help are you going to give us? Because from what I can tell, The Council is going to be on our hides for hosting not one, but two witches, and trying to steal a third from under their noses."
Snapping her fingers at the still open door, Andy welcomes in a slinking animal the size of a dog. "Fight a beast, with a beast. Tania, darling, I know you're fond of that little kitty cat of yours, but you should know by now, the wilder the familiar is, the more powerful. Isn't my Kamali handsome?"
"Is that a freaking serval in my living room?!" Jason shouts from his seat. "What the hell? Is that even legal?"
"Are Tania and I even legal?" She retorts, waving finger quotes on the last word. "In this state, I don't know, and don't care. He's my familiar and I'm not going anywhere without him, especially not until I can figure out what we're working with here."
"Hang on, am I to understand that you magically know everything that's gone on here the last two weeks? That out of nowhere, you're just going to snap your fingers, and everything is fine?" Atlas demands, standing in front of me, in a very clearly defensive stance.
"Are we still not answering the whole why-is-a-serval-in-my-living-room bit?" Jason demands agitatedly.
I just want Sasha, why isn't anyone moving out the door yet? "Andromeda, where is she? We're wasting time."
A feral scowl crosses her face, and the black coated feline at her feet emits a low yowl. "See that's the problem being a seer, it's nothing but questions all the time. Demands, demands, demands. I'm here to save y'all's asses, you could wait just a moment."
Shattered (Tempest Coven Novels) Page 16